iphone photo by Vince Montague

Based in San Francisco, CA, USA, Gary Schwantes is founder and Artistic Director of ULTRA WORLD X-TET, and produced the group's albums Wise Dreams and Fables of the Sky, Moon and Legend , and  Night Market which feature his sax, bamboo flute and guitar work as well as many  of his compositions . He has toured, recorded and produced 3 albums (Threedom, 4,  Moose Lodge Sessions) with the North Carolina based jazz-funk trio Hip Bones which feature his sax and bamboo flute work and many of his compositions. He has performed with  SF based  Klezmania!, and played on the Sanctuary Grooves album. Other gigs include  sax and flute work with Melody of China, Pam Tillis, Swapan Chaudhuri, Weishan Liu, Lou Harrison,  Zeke Nealy and Veve Vodou, Allen Ginsberg, John Cipolina,  Hank Ballard, and many more. He  co-composed the Dynasties album with Gang Situ, and played on Metal Guitarist Jason Becker's Perspective. He has composed music and done sound design for many organizations including Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company, Mickey Hart's Planet Drum, Craig Baldwin, Dimensions Dance Theater, ACT, and S.F. Legion of Honor Museum. He has received commissions and grants from Meet the Composer, ACT, S.F. Legion of Honor Museum, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Opera Piccola and Chinese Cultural Productions and studied composition at Mills College with Lou Harrison and Anthony Braxton.

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